


C’mon, baby, this laugh’s on me

by SquaresAreNotCircles



Category: Cobra Kai (Web Series)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, F/M, M/M, Multi, i don't know what happens after the first 1.5 seasons but i feel safe in assuming it's not this, idk set kind of post-canon?, team Johnny Lawrence Will Be A Better Person Whether He Wants To Or Not Dammit, the realization that you might actually be Happy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-20
Updated: 2021-01-20
Packaged: 2021-03-18 12:28:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28867032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SquaresAreNotCircles/pseuds/SquaresAreNotCircles
Summary: “Hey! You two did this to me. You made me soft.”Or: Johnny faces the awful, terrifying truth that he might have accidentally grown a little as a person.
Relationships: Amanda LaRusso/Daniel LaRusso/Johnny Lawrence
Comments: 6
Kudos: 47





	C’mon, baby, this laugh’s on me

**Author's Note:**

> This was written after watching the first one and a half seasons, so this is just me abruptly yeeting Johnny towards a happier place in life so he doesn’t have to be quite _that_ much of an incredibly insufferable asshole to everyone he meets anymore. Glitter emoji.
> 
> The title is a line from _Dancing In The Dark_ by Bruce Springsteen.

He’s at the corner store, picking up some organic blueberry yogurt for lunch because he forgot his usual chicken salad in the fridge at home, when he rounds the corner and spots them. It’s easy to the point of being ridiculous. All it takes is a single well-aimed kick that blocks a fist, a little scowling, threats to knock some teeth out, and then the two teenage goons are scampering out the door, too fast for it to even hit them in the ass.

Johnny turns to the kid they were trying to shake down for lunch money and offers her a hand up. “You okay?”

“Yeah, I-” The kid wipes her glasses on the hem of her shirt, puts them on her nose and blinks at Johnny like a scrawny little owl. Johnny makes a mental note to doublecheck his own reading glasses in the mirror later to make sure everyone who told him they were bad-ass wasn’t lying their ass off, bad or otherwise. “Uh,” the kid says. “I- I need my homework, uh-”

Johnny follows skittish eyes to the floor behind him, where he finds an A4 notebook with the word _PHYSICS_ in ballpoint calligraphy letters and a bunch of actual, literal unicorn stickers. He stares at it for a second, wondering what unicorns have to do with fucking physics, and then bends to pick it up and hand it over. “Here you go. Stay in school.” 

He turns to leave with his blueberry yogurt when a voice pipes up behind him. “Hey, sir.” The kid is clutching the unicorns to her chest. At least it’s not a biology book. “Thanks. That was pretty awesome.”

He spies an opportunity. It’s what Amanda keeps telling him: marketing is all about finding the right hook. “Yeah? Hey, you wanna learn how to stand up for yourself next time?”

The kid looks down at her physics homework like the numbers are going to help her answer that.

He pulls a little card with a kick-ass cobra logo from his back pocket. Much better reading. “If you don’t mind getting yelled at, drop by some time. First lesson’s free.” He sizes the kid up and realizes he’d probably make her cry within the hour, so he dips his hand into his other pocket and offers her a second card. It has way, way inferior design on the coolness scale, obviously. “That’s for if you’re more the endless boring tasks type.” Even the Miyagi-Do logo is boring, so she’s not going to be able to say he didn’t warn her. “Don’t pick that one,” he adds, as a final piece of free advice before he heads off to pay.

“Only one yogurt?” Nestor asks, as he’s hitting keys on the register. “You were a much better customer when you were a drunk.”

Johnny snatches the yogurt, a spoon and what little remains of his Abraham Lincoln from the counter. “Boohoo,” he tells Nestor, while pulling the plastic cover from his yogurt with his teeth. It’s an acquired skill, but it lets him start walking and drop his trash in the can by the door without breaking his stride, like a cool guy.

There’s a pile of ponchos hoarding a croissant by the door outside. “Hey Lynn.” He drops his change in her little paper cup same as always.

She raises her croissant at him in greeting, like a French toast. “You’re a saint, Johnny.”

“Ha!” he calls back, almost snorting his yogurt.

And then he freezes, because well, god fucking dammit.

*

Miguel helps him lock up the dojo, but they end up discussing the next All Valley karate tournament for so long he’s still late when he makes it to his car. He’s a little less late when he arrives at the house, but not that much, because reckless driving is a lot less wildly enjoyable when you’re sober and have people waiting for you at home.

Fucking hell.

There’s a lot of noise coming from the yard, which makes sense when he pushes through the garden gate. Sam and Robby are by the pool doing their Miyagi-Do dance karate that they somehow manage to make look more bad-ass than it should, and Anthony is in the pool, splashing them as they do it and trying to throw them off their rhythm. He’s not succeeding.

All three kids find a moment to shout a hello at him as he stalks past, which doesn’t help with the angry, tough as nails mood he’s trying to cultivate. “Hi!” he bellows back.

He finds Amanda and Daniel in the kitchen, exactly where he expects them to be. Predictable, pff.

He purposefully doesn’t examine that he only knows about this pattern because he follows the same one.

Amanda is at the fridge while Daniel is by the stove, artfully tossing spices into what smells like his special pasta sauce. Daniel spots Johnny’s arrival first. “Hey, you’re just in time.”

Johnny doesn’t offer to lend a hand to either of them. He plants his feet and crosses his arms. “You know what I did today?”

Daniel looks him up and down. He seems confused more than intimidated. “What?”

“I was _nice_ to people. And I didn’t even notice!”

“How awful,” Amanda says, emerging from the fridge with a pitcher covered in plastic wrap. Her tone is drier than the soil around the second ever bonzai tree Daniel recently gave Johnny in a fit of hopeful optimism. “Should we be worried that it’s going to happen again tomorrow?”

“Yes. Yes, you should.” They’re both quiet, but that polite quiet, where people are only not rolling their eyes at you because they don’t want you to be able to call them out on it. “Hey! You two did this to me. You made me soft.”

Amanda pats his stomach as she passes by him to ferry the homemade salad dressing with less salt to the table set for six. “You don’t feel soft,” she says, but amused now, like she’s laughing at him. Which is great, because that’s bound to get him _actually_ angry.

He waits a few seconds.

He just feels kind of pleasant and loved. “Ugh!” he says, with feeling.

“You can punch me, if it will make you feel better,” Daniel offers.

“Nah. I’d just win the fight and wind up feeling guilty, or some shit.”

That of course gets Daniel to turn away from his cooking for a second. “Oh, you think?” he challenges, eyebrows flying up and brandishing his wooden spoon like he’s gonna try some lame-ass sword fighting.

Johnny is advancing, on the prowl, when Amanda swoops back into the kitchen. “Guys.” She plucks the spoon from Daniel’s hand and nudges him out of the way. Johnny grabs Daniel’s elbow and drags him aside, because you don’t mess with Amanda. She doesn’t know much karate, but she’ll kick you in the head all the same. “Save it for after dinner.”

“What’s after dinner?” Johnny asks, because he doesn’t carry a calendar. Who needs one when you live with two of them?

And sure enough, Amanda says, “Date night,” at the same time that Daniel replies, “Karate night.” The two of them exchange a look and Daniel tries, “Same thing.”

“Different terminology,” Amanda says.

“I like both,” Johnny offers. Jesus Christ, is he trying to make love, not war?

Amanda is definitely smiling as she turns to the stove to bring Daniel’s pasta over to the table. “Oh, we know.”

Daniel is doing more of a grin, so Johnny lets go of the elbow he was still loosely holding onto and gives him a shove. Daniel takes a step and doesn’t even pretend to stumble, but does laugh out loud. Goddamn balance.

“C’mon,” Daniel says, trailing Amanda, looking back over his shoulder at Johnny. “You’re not going to make the kids wait for dinner, are you?”

Johnny considers it. He considers staying right where he is, stuck in his place and trying to make himself miserable because things always change when he doesn’t ask them to, versus making a move to follow his two partners to the table where they have dinner every night with the kids, only one of which is technically his but all of whom he accidentally started to love. The choice is easy: he takes a step, and follows where his boyfriend led.

Johnny from the past would’ve _so_ tried to kick his face in. 

Johnny from the past would’ve missed. He knew nothing.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!! Comments are awesome, should you feel like leaving one. Please stay safe and don't get into corner store karate fights while trying to buy expensive yogurt. ❤
> 
> I’m on Tumblr as [itwoodbeprefect](https://itwoodbeprefect.tumblr.com).


End file.
